Happy Birthday
by Simplywaters
Summary: After everything ended a specter pays the ultimate price to reward his most loyal, and loved, friend.


I do not own Code Geass or any of its characters. They are the rightful property of the authors and artists who brought them to life for us.

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><p>"Happy Birthday"<p>

The words smoothly broke the silence that hung in the room. The digital numbers of the clock on the nightstand read 12:01 and the moon hung brightly outside the window. The figure covered in blankets began to stir slightly as another ghosted to the edge of the bed.

Pale, moonlight fingers traced the restless sleepers form. The digits never coming into contact with the fabric barrier that separated the two figures. Smiling through the shadows that clumped around their form the ghost lightly sat down, the sleeper mumbling as they curled closer to the intruder.

Minutes dragged on to hours as the rooms conscious occupant continued their unhurried strokes. Slowly the sleeper began to stir, fit-full shifting exposing bright red hair but always moving her closer to the darkened figure.

"Wake up Q-1." he called, a smooth, rich baritone that plucked at any woman's heart-strings.

As she always did, Kallen followed orders. Blue eyes cracking open and fixing their unfocused gaze on the shadow that moved a hand to cup her face.

"Happy Birthday." he said for the second time since entering the room.

"Le... louch?" she stated hesitantly, her hand creeping out to grab for the ghosts own.

He shifted at her attempt, skillfully avoiding her hand while still maintaining their proximity. A smirk crossed his shadowed face, not the arrogant smirk that was his trade-mark, but a saddened twist to his lips.

"You can't do that." he chidded lightly, fingers continuing to run along her form, always a fraction of an inch from touching her.

"Why?" she demanded sleepily, a heart-broken sound that speed the former princes hands and caused a small frown to replace his sad smirk.

"Two realms, two worlds, two lives, two destines forever intertwined but always apart." he quoted softly, "In one life I was a prince and you were a revolutionary. I fell from my families good graces and strove to destroy them. You became my sword and my shield, the person who protected my life with your own."

"I wouldn't let you die." he said after a moments pause, "And when the greatest danger to you became myself I pushed you away, refused to drag you down the devils path with me."

"I would have gone with you." she replied, a single tear rolling down to the tip of her nose.

"That's why I couldn't tell you the truth. 'Till the end' I wore the mask, just as you asked." he commented.

"That isn't fair!" she cried, curling around his form tighter, hating the tiny distance that always separated them.

"Not for me, not for you." the shadow replied, darker hair swishing quietly as a hand drifted through the strands. "But it was right. Are you and I, those stained with blood and carrying the weight of the lives that ended at our hands the ones who deserve what we desire most?" The red-head had no reply, merely shifted a fraction closer and buried her face in the sheet next to his leg.

"I broke the rules." the ghost stated, "I threw the laws of god and the devil in their faces and came to see you, the one who in the end hadn't abandoned me of your own choice. I came to see you one last time, to let you know just how important you were. Never a pawn, my queen in name and reality."

"Choosing your life over my life meant my death, but I never regretted it. Never had I doubts that of the two of us, you deserved to live and love. I came here tonight... to have you let me go." he finished hands barely hovering off the tender skin of her neck.

"I... can't." she finally broke, tears pouring endlessly into the smooth fabric below her.

"You can, I believe in you, Kallen." Lelouch stated without any hint of doubt. "Make a wish."

"I wish... I could be with you." she sobbed, "I don't want anything else."

"A troublesome request, but anticipated." the ghost mused, "Now, let the man of miracles grant you your wish!" rising to his feet the specter flourished his hands to the absent crowd.

"The fair maiden wishes for her true love! The prince who captured her heart, her mind, and her body. Now I, Lelouch vi Brittania, demand this favor of the gods. I ask not for myself, but for the woman who gave her entire being to creating this world of peace."

There was a pause while Kallen glared at the prince, her sorrow buried under wrath as he teased her mercilessly with her greatest weakness. Him.

"Don't do this." she pleaded.

"You have another wish?" the prince replied quizically.

Snarling she threw off the smothering blanket and stood face to face with the man of her dreams and nightmares.

"Don't you dare toy with me again, Lelouch. Your dead, but still torturing me! Just stop, stop making me believe in you. I don't want to hope anymore, I don't want to feel like it just might be possible you care for me as well. I can't move on with you hovering here making promises you won't keep."

"You... Doubt." the man stated, suddenly adopting a thoughtful pose. "You don't think I can make the impossible reality?"

"NO!" she shouted, "You never could, you only tricked and schemed. You lied, cheated, and murdered your way into our trust, into my heart!" like a switch her anger fled, leaving the woman feeling sick and weak.

There was an interesting emotion writhing on the dead mans face. Flashes of brilliant anger, moments of disbelief, and all of it drowned under determination.

"If I asked... at Ashford." he quietly asked, "Would you have sacrificed everything with me?"

"Yes." she replied, without hesitation.

"Ahh." he mumbled, turning away from her.

As he slowly approached the window Kallen felt her heart threaten to burst. She wanted to race after him, to grab him and cry into his shoulder. His arms around her would make everything right.

"Are you going?" she whispered.

"Yes." he replied, not looking at her. "My time is up and now I must 'pay the piper' if you will."

"Will I... ever see you again?" she hesitantly whimpered.

The prince froze, one hand on the windowsill. Slowly his head rotated to look at her. His violet eyes were wet, and his cheeks red. Kallen saw through him then, past the masks, past the lies, past all the walls that shielded the prince who had lost everything important in his life.

"If you wish it to be so." he said, turning his beautiful eyes back to the sky.

"I don't want you to go." she said, the sudden realization that this was it, the last chance she would ever have to talk with him.

"You should." he replied, slender body trembling as unseen forces began to assault him.

"I can't help it." she mournfully stated, fingers fisting tightly around the hem of her night-shirt.

"Can I be selfish?" he asked as bite-sized parts of his body began to dissipate, as beasts from a realm she could not comprehend began to feast.

"Aren't you always?" she responded.

"Your sure you want me back?" he demanded, his form splitting and cracking like a mirror.

"More then anything." was the reply.

"Then trust me." his voice drifted through the room as the last of him disappeared.

"Always."

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><p>Something I wrote a while ago and recently unearthed. I thought I might as well share this as I work my way back into updating my primary stories. Written after listening to "Happy Birthday" by Flipsyde and TaTu.<p>

Comments and reviews are always appreciated, though I don't anticipate continuing this particular story any further.

Thank you for reading and I'll be trying to get some updates out in the near future as well.

~SimplyWaters~


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